


To Have and to Hold

by IllyasJames



Series: 1 hour ficlets [6]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Fairy Tale Elements, Legends, M/M, Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 05:43:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13117263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IllyasJames/pseuds/IllyasJames
Summary: Gladio took the place of his sister as sacrifice fully intent to kill the monster that was demanding for one every twenty years. That last thing he expected was to find a young man, that was no more a monster than he was.





	To Have and to Hold

**Author's Note:**

> Day 292 of my 365FF Challenge. 
> 
> For Christmas I'm doing 1 hour Ficlits this entire weekend. See post [ here. ](http://the-world-of-illyas-james.tumblr.com/post/168859958699/1hour-ficlets)  
> Some of these prompts are things I would never write otherwise, so basically they are your only chance of getting me to make a story with them. **Several slots for batch 2 and 3 are still open.**
> 
> The sixth Ficlit. A Gladnis story. I had hoped to get them as a prompt at least once so i truly enjoyed writing this one.  
> I'm hoping I've done them justice in the short time I gave myself for these stories. :}
> 
> As always I sent you off to enjoy the work by reminding that [ my tumblr ](http://the-world-of-illyas-james.tumblr.com/) is always available if you feel the need to sent me an ask or start a conversation over messages.  
> Seriously. I love receiving them. And I do my best to always answer. :}
> 
> Small service announcement;  
> A more pressing issue, however, is Update Demands. I've gotten a couple of comments about this and, please, I am begging you, don't do the thing. I know you're excited; hell, I'm excited about seeing the next chapter/sequel too, I love the enthusiasm you guys have! However, I am also a person who suffers from anxiety and that makes it hard to write, especially when I feel like I'm being pressured. I will get blocked and there will be no updates if this happens. Not because I'm being mean, but I genuinely just don't handle it well.  
> So please respect me, and try your best to not come of as rude in your enthusiasm.  
> Thank you. :}

Gladio's fingers caress the covers of the many books in the massive library, he's still in need to wrap his mind around his find. He had gone off into the woods with the simple intention to fight, and hopefully defeat, the monster that resided there demanding a young girl to be delivered as a sacrifice every twenty years. 

He looks to the other side of the library to the young man he had found waiting in the clearing, he had taken the position from his sister telling the leaders of his town they were cowards to sent a teenage girl into the woods to save their own lives. Iris had cried when he left, but he had promised to come back.

The last thing he expected to find was a man looking about his own age. And by the look of it the man had not expected to see him come up the path either. 

“May I ask what you are planning to come and do, as you don't look like a sacrifice.” The cold accented voice is spoken with such calm to it that Gladio had felt the need to stop in his tracks. 

“I come in place of my younger sister, I will not have another young girl die by the acts of some monster no matter what. I have come here to kill it and free my village of it's looming threat.” 

Gladio straightens his back, he is an Amicitia they were once a family of warriors that people took notice of, he will not have some stranger look down on him. 

“And your name?” 

The other doesn't even look slightly put off by his statement, maybe other villages already sent fighters to deal with it once. With the lands in ruins no one ever travels far from where they were born. His father had been an exception. 

“Gladio Amicitia. And Yours?” The other man blinks twice before looking over his physique. 

“An Amicitia? Did that family not move to the south cities when the Crown cities fell? I thought you all were extinct.” A soft smile forms on the man's face giving it a far softer look. 

“I'm Ignis Scientia. I have been waiting.” He turns to a path Gladio hadn't seen yet. “Follow me.”  
They had walked for nearly an hour before Ignis had opened a gate hidden in between some bushes, ushering him into the deserted and completely gone to waste garden of a large villa. Gladio had just stared at it for a good few minutes before he had felt cool fingers touch his arm ushering him inside.

“We don't want to be out at night. They don't dare to enter the palace but the protection that kept them off the grounds has faltered many years ago.” Ignis looked at him in urgency making Gladio feel he missed something important.

“Does the monster reside in this palace or the gardens? For I came here to kill it and not to hide form it. I promised my sister I would safely return to her.” He feels the stare more than he can see it in the shadows of the hallway they pass.

“We will go to the library. I think you will find all the information that you need to aid you in your quest.” 

True to his word Ignis had brought him to the library, told him where every book was and then went off to do his own things. Normally the silence would annoy Gladio at some point, not knowing what the other might be scheming. But he doesn't feel any sort of deceit from Ignis, just a small tinge of desperation he can't really place.

He puts the bestiary back he had pulled from the shelf to see if it held a clue, only to be disappointed to see that most of the animals listed had been extinct since forever. One would think a book looking this new would not have such outdated information in it. He pulls it again just to look at when it was printed.

Ignis looks up when Gladio starts to pull book after book only looking at the first page before putting them aside. His eyes follow his every move a calm look on his face as if he knows what is to happen next. Gladio turns to him and finally, finally, looks him over like he had been looked over. 

“There isn't a single book here that wasn't printed over one thousand years ago.” 

Ignis simply nods at that statement and pushes a book he had on his reading table towards Gladio, daring him to look. 

The book appears to be a ledger of sorts listing the family tree of the old Crowns the Lucis Cealum, he goes through page after page starting at the first only to falter at the twenty third when his own family name pops up. Apparently his family once served as protectors to the crown in such high regard they had their names recorded.

After that he pages a bit slower, seeing his own family tree grow and die with every new king, till he comes to the last page and sees his own name well the full version his name comes from listed with the last known King. But there is another name on that page put down on the other side of the Kings. 

He looks up, looking up in two eyes that hold more sorrow than that of everyone else Gladio had ever seen. Eyes he knows have indeed seen too much. 

“You have been here all this time? Since the last King fell?”

Ignis sighs. “He did not fail, he was taken to let all of us live. I was promised that one day he would return and I swore I would wait for him. I had not understood how long I was going to have to wait.”

Gladio looks back down. The last King was nothing more than a legend, people even claimed there had never been a King in Eos that it was just fairy tales people used to tell to give themselves hope. Now it turns out that he was looking at a person who had been alive when that King ruled and was bound to live till his return. 

“Why demand sacrifices if you are simply waiting for his return?” It makes no sense, Ignis doesn't look like a monster to him. He looks more lost than vicious. 

And when he looks up with a glimmer of anger I his eyes Gladio feels the need to take a step, something he hasn't done for any man in quite some years. 

“I never asked for sacrifices. Never!!” Ignis turns hiding the distraught look on his face. “At first the people knew I was here and why as they had served with me, had fought by our side. They came but as they did grow older they would always move to see their families once they were old. Their children came next, then their children, and their children's children. Soon it was many generations and they no longer came to just talk with me, to talk about the past we shared, they came because it was a family tradition.” He sighs.

“Then one of them thought I might need a partner, someone to love. So they started to send me brides.” There is a clear tone of disgust in his voice. “Girls, probably no older than your sister, came here thinking they needed to win my heart to relieve me off some curse. I was appalled by them and mostly just ignored them.” Gladio sees him rubs his hand in his neck.

“First the girls came willingly, after all the thought that upon me getting my freedom they would get some reward served them aplenty.” he turns to look at Gladio with a plead in his eyes that makes his insides pull together “Somehow the story started to change, from having to free me of a monster to me being a monster.”

“The brides came far less willing. Some were violent, most just cried and begged me not to kill them, some never even made it to the castle as they fled into the bushes. I do not wish to think of them.” 

The shocked sound Ignis makes when Gladio pulls him into a hug would be funny if the taller one hadn't needed the hug as much as he was giving it. When a soft huff is felt to his collarbone he knows the other one is not going to fight him over it. 

“I'm sorry you had to go through this. I'm so sorry that people never bothered to come and ask, we have been telling the story of a monster for so long we never even doubted it.” 

They hug like that for some time, simply reveling in knowing that for Ignis this might have been the first non-violent human interaction in years. 

“Can't remember the last time somebody held me like that.” Ignis steps out of the embrace. “I'm the guardian of the Crystal that keeps the last King, I have no intention to kill you or do you any harm. But I am lonely, you are free to leave if you want but I would very much like it if you stayed and kept me company.” 

Gladio brushes his thumb over Ignis' cheek.

“If you don't mind me going back to the village from time to time to check upon my sister I would be very honored to learn to know you better. Plus I would love to meet this last king one day.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> And if you want a Ficlit of your own don't hesitate to look it up [ here. ](http://the-world-of-illyas-james.tumblr.com/post/168859958699/1hour-ficlets)
> 
> I'll be looking forward to your comments and ideas. :}


End file.
